Corsets, girdles and like gaments



Nov. 15, 1966 B. M. WILLIAMS CORSETS, GIRDLES AND LIKE GARMENTS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 28, 1964 AHry M4/ M14 MMS 01 JAM-flaw 15, 1966 B. M.WlLLlAMS 3,285,248

CORSETS, GIRDLES AND LIKE GARMENTS Filed July 28, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 y E44 97. L Q 2% United States Patent 3,285,248 CORETS, GHRDLES AND LIKE GAMENTS Betty May Williams, Slough, England, assignor to Berlei (UK) Limited, Slough, England, a British company Filed July 28, 1964, Ser. No. 385,599 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Aug. 9, 1963, 31,602/ 63 4 Claims. (Cl. 128-546) This invention relates to corsets, girdles, pantie girdles and like body-encircling garments for women.

A considerable improvement over prior known garments of the kind in question is represented by those garments embodying the invention disclosed and claimed in my Patent No. 3,113,572.

In accordance with the invention of my aforesaid patent, a corset, girdle or like body-encircling garment for women is provided, which includes a front abdomen-supporting panel comprising symmetrical leftand right-hand sections each comprising inner and outer overlapping layers of fabric joined to each other and to the opposite section along a central vertical seaming line and each layer having its respective lower edge unconnected with that of the adjacent layer except at the central seaming line and oppositely inclined to the lower edge of such adjacent layer, one of the layers of each section being joined to the adjacent forward side edge of the remainder of the garment along a greater distance than the other layer of the same section, each of the fabric layers of each of the leftand right-h2md sections being formed of fabric which is inextensible in both warp and weft directions and is so cut that the inclined lower edge thereof lies parallel to one of the Warp and weft directions.

In many forms of foundation garment which have a front panel in accordance with the aforesaid invention, typically those forms of garment of the girdle and corselet type, the front panel is so assembled with the remainder of the garment that the shallow inverted V-shape, which is formed by the inclined lower edges of the lowermost layers forming each section of the front panel, constitutes the front portion of the lower edge of the garment itself. This contributes to a neat and uncluttered design which avoids undue wastage in cutting. Also, where the oppositelyinclined lower edges of both layers forming each section of the front panel are so arranged that those which are upwardly inclined from the central seaming line are positioned to lie in the vicinity of the wearers groin lines, the other, downwardly inclined edges of the lowermost layers can very conveniently merge into the general lower edge of the remainder of the garment which is then positioned on th wearer so as to pass beneath the hip joints and in the region of the gluteal fold. Such a neat and convenient assembly of the constituent panel parts of a foundation girdle according to our aforesaid specification is not so readily achieved where the garment is of the pantie type or is of other forms of girdle type. For instance, in the case of a short or brief pantie girdle type of garment, the most suitable cutting patterns for the layers of the front panel do not readily lend themselves to full length lower edges of the front panel layers extending fully from the central seaming line downwardly to the sid seams, where the outer edges of the front panel are joined to the remainder of the garment. In the case of a long-line pantie girdle type, designed to exercise control over the upper thighs of the wearer in addition to the abdomen and buttock regions, it is generally unnecessary to provide a bodyencircling seaming line in the garment at a position below the wearers hips equivalent to that of the lower edge of the girdle form of garment mentioned above and, in practice, advantageous economy in pattern cutting, control in use and other benefits stem from the provision in such a garment of full-length panels of fabric extending from the Patented Nov. 15, 1966 upper or waist edge to the lower or leg-encircling edge in at least the flank portions of the garments.

In addition, it has been discovered that the benefits of a front-panel structure involving non-stretch fabric layers, which are non-elastically extensible in directions skew to their warp and weft directions and which layers are arranged so that the directions of greatest extensibility of one layer generally overlie those of least extensibility of another, can be largely or even wholly realized even if the lower edges of the respective panel section layers are not generally straight and oppositely-inclined.

The present invention may be considered, from this standpoint, as an extension or enlargement of the application of the invention principles of the aforesaid patent.

According to this invention, therefore, a corset, girdle, pantie girdle or other body-encircling garment for women consists of an improvement in or modification of the invention as claimed in Patent No. 3,112,572, wherein such garment includes a front abdomen-supporting panel comprising symmetrical leftand right-hand sections each comprising at least two overlapping layers of fabric joined to each other and to the opposite section along a central vertical seaming line, each of the layers of each section being joined to the adjacent forward side edge of the remainder of the garment and each of the layers of each of the leftand right-hand sections being formed of fabric which is inextensible in both warp and weft directions and so cut that the warp and weft directions of one layer of each of the leftand right-hand sections are positioned skew to the warp and weft directions of the other layer of the respective section.

In one preferred embodiment of the present invention, the respective lower edges of the layers of each section are superposed and are generally upwardly inclined from the central seaming line.

Preferably, the lower edge of one layer of each section of the front panel is arranged to be generally parallel to one of the warp and weft directions of the constituent fabric.

Although not exclusively restricted thereto, the present invention is of particular advantage in the manufacture of garments of the pantie type which embody a front abdomen-supporting panel.

In order that the present invention may be readily understood, reference is made to the following description given in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of a long-line pantie girdle embodying the invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary cross-section taken on the line II-II of FIG. 1, drawn to an enlarged scale and with the fabric thickness dimensions exaggerated for clarity of illustration;

FIG. 3 shows the preferred shape of a fabric piece for forming one of the front panel sections of the pan-tie girdle shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 shows a front elevational view of a brief pantie girdle, which is of the kind described in my aforesaid Patent No. 3,113,572 in conjunction with FIG. 8 of the drawings of that patent and representing another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 shows a front elevational view of a girdle embodying the present invention;

FIG. 6 shows a diagram illustrating the co-operation between the superposed skew fabric layers of a panel section.

Referring to FIG. 1, the pantie girdle shown comprises a front panel construction in accordance with this invention, indicated generally at 10, associated with a bodyencircling part, indicated generally at 11, which includes leg portions 12. The major portions of the body-encircling part 11 and the leg portions 12 consist of a single piece of elastic fabric, having a two-way stretch characteristic as indicated by the arrow symbols 13, shaped and seamed at the lower centre front and inside leg positions to provide the required shape. If required, this part of the garment need not be in one piece. Also, strengthening panels may be added, for instance, a super-posed V- shaped piece of two-way stretch fabric applied over the rear section of the part 11. This portion of the garment is completed by an elastic waistband 14 of one-way stretch fabric, as shown by the arrows 15, secured to the upper edge of fabric piece comprising the portions 11 and 12 and constituting the uppermost section of the remainder of the garment apart from the uppermost portion of the front panel and bands 16 of decorative elastic fabric at the leg portions and arranged to encircle the mid-thigh regions. The warp and weft directions of the two-way stretch fabric of the portions 11 and 12 are indicated at 17. The precise form of the body-encircling portion of the garment is not decisive, provided it includes two mutually opposed forward side edges 18 and 19 and two corresponding lower edges 20 and 21 which in this embodiment are downwardly inclined, for attachment to the equivalent edges of the front panel 10, as explained below in detail.

The front abdomen-supporting panel 10 is formed of symmetrical leftand right-hand sections 22 and 23 comprising respectively outer fabric layers 22a, 23a, intermediate fabric part layers 22b, 23b and inner fabric layers 22c, 23c. The lower edges 24, 25 and 26 of the respective outer, intermediate and inner fabric layers are mutually superimposed and upwardly inclined from the lowest point 27 of a central vertical seaming line 28, which unites the two panel sections, to points 29 where the respective side edges 18 and 19 meet the lower edges 20 and 21. The lower edges 24, 25 and 26 are arranged so as generally to overlie the groin lines of the wearer when the pantie girdle is in use. The angle between the lower edges 24, 25 and 26 and the central seaming line 28 is of the order of 65, so that such lower edge makes an angle of about 25 with respect to the horizontal.

The outermost edges of the overlapping fabric layers 22a, 22b, 22c, and 23a, 23b, 230 of the respective panel sections 22 and 23 are each firmly secured, as by stitching 30 and preferably with an inside tape facing, to the adjacent forward side edges 18 and 19 of the remainder of the garment, such forward side edges 18 and 19 including the ends of the waistband 14. The outer and inner fabric layers 22a, 22c and 23a, 230 are also secured to the adjacent lower edges 20 and 21 and to one another at the top edge 31 by stitching 32. The intermediate fabric layers 22b and 23b are included in these seaming lines insofar as they overlap the outer and inner layers, such intermediate layers being provided for decorative purposes and including any desired fancy weave design and/or edge design, the fabric of the outer layers 22m and 23a, at least, being sufficiently open-meshed or otherwise transparent to allow the intermediate layers 22b and 22c, where provided, to be visible, whereby attractive decorative effects are produced.

The fabric employed for the layers 22a, 22b, 22c and 23a, 23b, 23c is of non-extensible character in its warp and weft directions. As indicated at 33, 34, these warp and weft directions, for the outer and inner layers 22a, 23a and 220, 23c are arranged to lie, in the case of the outer layers 22a, 23a, so that one of the warp and weft directions is parallel with and the other is at right-angles to the lower edges 24 of such outer layers and, in the case of the inner layers 22c, 23c, so that both of the warp and weft directions are skew to the lower edges 26 of such inner layers and, therefore, are also skew to the warp and weft directions of the overlying outer layers 22a, 23a. The intermediate layers 22b, 23b are not important as regards their warp and weft directions, which will normally and conveniently be respectively parallel to and normal to the free edges of such layers, as shown at 35.

In a preferred manner of construction, the outer and inner layers 22a, 220 of the panel section 22 are formed of one piece of material of the shape shown in FIG. 3, which piece has approximately the same shape as'the front panel 10 itself. This piece of material is folded back upon itself along its centre-line 36 and, after insertion into such fold of the edge of the intermediate layer 22b, the whole is then folded upon itself along lines 35a, 36b parallel to the fold line 36 and stitched, as shown at 37 (FIGS. 1 and 2), to the other panel section 23, with an overlying reinforcing tape 38 applied to the inside of the central vertical seam 28. The outer and inner layers 23a, 230 of the other panel section are formed similarly.

FIG. 4 shows a modification of the invention which is similar to the pantie garment shown in FIG. 8 of the drawings of my aforesaid patent. In the garment shown in FIG. 4, as compared with that shown in FIG. 1, the body-encircling part 11 is shorter and the forward side edges 18 and 19 are continued downwardly to the leg bands, so that no part is present which is attached to the part 11 and intended to be equivalent to the leg-encircling regions 12 of the garment shown in FIG. 1. In the embodiment of FIG. 4, each front panel section 22, 23 includes the outer inner layers 22a, 22c and 230, 23c only and the inner layers 22c and 23c are continued below the position of the lower edges 24 of the outer layers 22a, 23a as compared with FIG. 1, to contribute to smooth leg-encircling curved edges to which marginal web members 39 in the form of leg-bands of elastic fabric are connected, The innermost parts of the lower edges of the inner fabric layers 22c, 23c are downwardly inclined opposite to the edges 24 of the outer layers 22a, 23a and they and the members 39 are stitched to a crotch part 40 of two-way stretch fabric.

Referring now to FIG. 5, this shows a medium-length girdle similar to that illustrated in FIG. 1 of my aforesaid patent. The girdle of FIG. 5 consists of a front abdomen-supporting panel, indicated generally at 50, joined at its sides to a body-encircling portion. This consists of side panels 51a, 51b, a back panel 52 and a waistband 53, arranged so that the side edges of the front panel 50 are secured to the forward side edges of the side panels 51a, 51b and, in the uppermost region, of the waistband 53 and so that the rearward side edges of the side panels 51a, 511) are secured to the side edges of the back panel 52 and the upper edges of the side and back panels are secured to the lower edge of the waistband.

The front panel 50 is generally of the same construction as the front panel 10 shown and described above in relation to FIGS. 1 ,to 3, except that it need not include any intermediate layers, such as the layers 22b, 23b of FIG. 1. Both layers of both leftand right-hand sections 50a, 50b of the front panel 50 are substantially coextensive and terminate in upwardly inclined lower edges 54 which extend from the lowest point 55a of the central vertical seaming line 55 which joins the symmetrical sections of the front panel 50. The side panels 51a, 5112, which are conveniently of two-way streach material as indicated by the symbols 13, include approximately triangular shaped extensions 56a, 562: at the lower ends of the side edges 18a, 19a and the upper edges of these extensions are secured by stitching to the lower edges 54 of the front panel 50. The lower circumference of the garment consists of the lower edges of the back panel 52 and the side panels 51a, 51b and is generally horizontal except between points below the side edges of the front panel 50, where the lower edges of the extensions 56a, 56b incline upwardly up to the central point 55a coincident with the lower end of the seaming line 55.

The back panel 52 may, if desired, be eliminated so that the body-encircling portion is all one piece. Where a separate back panel is employed, it is preferably of oneway stretch elastic material with the stretch, direction upright.

In all the girdle, pantie girdle and other garment constructions of the invention, the garment includes symmetrical left-hand and right front panel sections, joined together to form the whole front panel by a central vertical seaming line. Each of these panel sections comprises two or more overlapping layers of fabric joined to each other by the seaming line and formed of fabric which is inextensible in both warp and weft directions. In other words, the essential two overlapping layers of each front panel section are not made of one-way stretch fabric, such as the waistbands 14 and 53, nor are they made of two-way stretch fabric, such as the side panels 11 and 51a, 51b. The two layers are so arranged that the Warp and weft directions of one are skewed with respect to those of the other. The effect of this is shown in FIG. 6, which illustrates diagrammatically at -57, 58 two overlapping pieces of non-stetch fabric. The warp direction of the fabric piece 57 is shown by the full lines 59, while its weft direction is shown by the broken lines 60. Considering the effects of tension applied to the fabric piece 57 in various directions, these are as follows: If tension is applied in directions parallel to the warp direction, i.e. as indicated by the arrows 61, or parallel to the weft direction i.e. as indicated by the arrows 62, appreciable extension of the fabric piece 57 cannot occur as it is substantially inextensible in each of these directions. In directions which are slightly displaced angularly from those of the warp and weft directions, e.g. as indicated by the arrows 63, very slight extension is possible and this extensibility progressively increases as the direction of application of tension changes to the directions, as indicated by the arrows 64 and 65, which lie at an angle of approxiamtely 45 to the warp and weft directions. When tension is applied in either of these directions, it causes the maximum and non-elastic extension of the fabric piece 57, as the respective warp and weft yarns pivot relative to one another.

In the second fabric piece 58 the warp (or weft) direction is shown by the chain-dotted lines 66 and the weft (or warp) direction is shown by the dotted lines 67. These directions are arranged to be at an angle in the vicinity of 45, for example between 40 and 55, to the related directions of the fabric piece 57. The fabric piece 58 behaves similarly to the piece 57 under tension in different directions, having no appreciable extension in either of the directions, also indicated by the arrows 64, 65, parallel to its weft and warp directions and having its 'greastest extensibility in directions lying at approximately 45 to such warp and weft directions, i.e. as also illustrated by the arrows 61 and 62. In carrying the invention into effect, the separate layers of the front panel sections are arranged as shown in FIG. 6, namely with the non-extensible directions 61, 62 the fabric piece 57 parallel with the directions of greatest extensibility of the fabric piece 58 and, correspondingly the non-extensible directions 64 and 65 of the fabric piece 58 parallel with the directions of greatest extensibility of the fabric piece 57. When tension in any direction is applied to a front panel constituted by overlapping fabric piece 57 and 58, as may occur when a girdle or other garment including such a front panel is worn, such tension direction must coincide with or be close to one in which one of the fabric pieces has little or no extensibility, so that the front panel resists extension and becomes more linear between the opposing points at which tension is applied and so tends towards a flatter configuration.

Also, in use in a garment according to the invention, the central vertical seaming line, by inhibiting any translatory movement of the fabric layers relatively to one another in the vertical direction which lies at right angles to the generally horizontal direction in which the majority of the applied tensions arise, assists in the prevention of extension of the front panel (or its departure from a smooth and flattened contour, so that the general flattening effect of the tension applied circumferentially of the body is to lift and flatten the wearers abdomen. In other words, the purpose of the front panel is to resistthe outward pressure of the abdomen tending to adopt an unsupported condition and it achieves that purpose, not merely by flattening under the effect of the circumferential tension applied to the panel by the outward pressure, 'but by accompanying that flattening with a generally upward and inward lifting effect, which is extremely beneficial to the wearer and gives the desired figure-control with great comfort and convenience.

The present invention thus provides a wide variety of forms of foundation garment, including long and short girdles and long and short pantie girdles, which all provide the beneficial lifting and flattening action on the abdominal region described above, by way of improvement or modification of the invention of my aforesaid patent.

I claim:

1. A corset, girdle, pantie girdle or other body-encircling garment for women, which includes a front abdomen-supporting panel comprising symmetrical leftand right-hand sections each comprising at least two overlapping layers of fabric joined to each other and to the opposite section along a central vertical seaming line, each of the layers of each section being joined to the adjacent forward side edges of the remainder of the garment and each of the layers of each of the leftand right-hand sections being formed of fabric which is inextensible in both warp and weft directions and so cut that the warp and weft directions of one layer of each of the leftand right-hand sections are positioned skew to the warp and weft directions of the other layer of the respective section, the respective lower edges of the layers of each section being superposed and generally upwardly inclined from the central seaming line.

2. A garment according to claim 1, in which the lower edge of each panel section is arranged at an angle of the order of about 65 to the central seaming line.

3. A garment according to claim 1, in which the remainder of the garment comprises leftand right-hand side panels of two-way stretch fabric and a back panel of one-way stretch fabric.

4. A garment according to claim 3, in which the side panels include integral approximately triangular shaped extensions secured by their upper edges to the lower edges of the front panel sections.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,340,627 2/1944 Surence 128547 2,779,023 1/1957 Lax 128528 3,113,572 10/1963 Williams 128528 3,177,876 4/1965 Steiner 128547 ADELE M. EAGER, Primary Examiner. 

1. A CORSET, GIRDLE, PANTIE GIRDLE OR OTHER BODY-ENCIRCLING GARMENT FOR WOMEN, WHICH INCLUDES A FRONT ABDOMEN-SUPPORTING PANEL COMPRISING SYMMETRICAL LEFTAND RIGHT-HAND SECITONS EACH COMPRISING AT LEAST TWO OVERLAPPING LAYERS OF FABRIC JOINED TO EACH OTHER AND TO THE OPPOSITE SECTION ALONG A CENTRAL VERTICAL SEAMING LINE, EACH OF THE LAYERS OF EACH SECTION BEING JOINED TO THE ADJACENT FORWARD SIDE EDGES OF THE REMAINDER OF THE GARMENT AND EACH OF THE LAYERS OF EACH OF THE LEFT- AND RIGHT-HAND SECTIONS BEING FORMED OF FABRIC WHICH IS INEXTENSIBLE IN BOTH WARP AND WEFT DIRECTIONS AND SO CUT THAT THE WARP AND WEFT DIRECTIONS OF ONE LAYER OF EACH OF THE LEFT- AND RIGHT-HAND SECTIONS ARE POSITIONED SKEW TO THE WARP AND WEFT DIRECTIONS OF THE OTHER LAYER OF THE RESPECTIVE SECTION, THE RESPECTIVE LOWER EDGES OF THE LAYERS OF EACH SECTION BEING SUPERPOSED AND GENERALLY UPWARDLY INCLINED FROM THE CENTRAL SEAMING LINE. 